Survivor Blog 8

During this late stage of the game leadership becomes a big deal, leading alliances is key to making progress to the end of the game and ultimately accomplishing their goal of victory. In the latest episode two members of the winning team of the reward challenge gave up their positions on a yacht with food and drinks to two members of the losing team. They played this off as a caring gift when in actuality they used it as a strategic maneuver. By gifting their reward to two members that were not yet in their alliance they gained favor with them and solidified their support in the upcoming votes. It also gave them the ability to vote one of their own members onto exile island to try and find the hidden immunity Idol to benefit their allegiance.  Not only was this a bold play in the game it was a strong showing of leadership by the two members that sacrificed their reward for the betterment of their alliance.

Many other aspects of this game show a laissez-faire style of leadership in the groups, even with the formation of alliances the dissolution of the two groups into one single group makes the group more of a free for all. Although they all strive for one goal it is mutually exclusive, only one of them may win, and so no one is obligated to work together for objectives. Therefore when it comes to meeting needs of the group on the island decisions are often left to the individual and the group no longer seems to be concerned about reaching a consensus on what actions to take for the group. The only agreements the groups try to make at this point in the game is who they will vote to remove from the islands and even this is ultimately left up to each individual survivor.